Add/Remove Programs not working

[nagornyi]

w2k professional, sp4.
Double clicking Add/Remove Programs icon on Control Panel doesn't do anyting. What may be causing/how to fix this? Norton WinDoctor does not detect any problems in the system.
Thanks.

 

[bcastner]

Can you access any other:

. MCC related tool, such as Disk Management, or Users and Groups?

Before it can get much worse, scan with Trend Micro and Panda (use both) at smah's FAQ: faq760-3862

Note: this state of affairs need not be virus related, please report back after the AV scans.

 

[sioxley]

Could be related to internet Explorer. Have you updated this recently? This can be the cause.

Go to microsoft technet and search for article 329862. This should fix your problem.

 

[bcastner]

sioxley was referring to:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;329862

Which is a good place to start.

 

[nagornyi]

I have cleaned my box from viruses and followed the artical 329862 trying to fix the problem. Did not help. As the article suggests, I went on with In-Place Upgrade:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;292175

And here strange thing happened. The article says that if w2k is seriously damaged, there may be no (R}estore option in the menu, but the installation would proceed to disk format instead. I had {R}estore option all righnt, but after clicking R it said.... HD not found !?!? . How is that possible? Not only HD is there, but the w2k is there and working except fro that Add/Remove programs issue... Not sure what to do.

 

[j0ckser]

I had a similar problem - add/remove wouldn't work - tried everything I (and Dell Tech support) could think of but in the end had to reformat and reload. Had a virus. Sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings, but...

per ardua ad astra

 

[pvanos]

I had the same problem (most likely caused by some virus indeed), and got it back to work by copying Mshta.exe from C:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\i386 to C:\WINNT\System32.
You might also find it in C:\WINNT\System32\dllcache , but make sure you unmark "hide protected operating system files" in Explorer-FolderOptions, or you won't see this folder.